go back to The ECOSYSTEM home page
Demand for paper is soaring, particularly in the North. To supply cheap pulp, fast-growing tree plantations are being established on the forests, pastures and farmlands of the South, with severe environmental and social impacts. Anticipating opposition to their activities, the pulp and paper industry has become adept at "greenwashing" its activities. A case study of three of Brazil's leading pulp operations compares the companies' claims with their impacts on the ground.
Recent civil wars indicate how boundaries can violently and arbitrarily divide ethnic peoples; yet boundaries are integral to the modern concept of a nation state. Before the late nineteenth century, however, understanding in Siam of a state's territory and sovereignty did not include the delineation of boundaries in the modern sense. When the Europeans moved into the region, their science of geography and technology of mapping confronted indigenous concepts of boundary and sovereignty. To resolve their conflicts, the Siamese rulers and Europeans fought with surveys and maps as well as military force. The Siamese (later Thai) nationhood that emerged has, to a large extent, been defined by mapping.
Genetic engineering has enabled novel species of plants, animals and micro-organisms to be created as genes from totally unrelated species which cannot breed with each other are spliced together. To reap financial gain, the biotechnology industry has, over the past two decades, pushed for patent law to cover its "inventions". Patent rights over living organisms, combined with the industry's efforts to gain exclusive access to the world's biodiversity, are exacerbating the commodification and industrialized use of species. Opposition to this "biotechnological imperialism" is gaining in momentum.
In 1993, the Malaysian government revived its plans for a huge hydroelectric project in Sarawak, Malaysia - the Bakun dam - and announced that it would be built with private (rather than public) money. Private finance has not been forthcoming, however. Direct and indirect government subsidies are now bailing the project out. Many Malaysians have expressed concern at the consequences of "privatization" in the country and the ways in which Bakun has entrenched unaccountable political- corporate networks.
Contesting Earth's Future: Radical Ecology and Postmodernity by Michael E Zimmerman , reviewed by Val Plumwood
The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India by Radha Kumar; & Where Women Are Leaders: The SEWA Movement in India, by Kalima Ros , reviewed by Sumati Nair
Gunrunners Gold: How the Public's Money Finances Arms Sales, by World Development Movements, reviewed by Lucy Beck
When Corporations Rule the World, by David C Korten, reviewed by Ward Morehouse